There has been, to say the least, a lot of hubbub around the arrival – and the 12-hour detention followed by the issuing of a 90-day visa – of some 153 Gazans at OR Tambo International last week. There has also been, almost inevitably, a veritable avalanche of conflicting information and disinformation around it.
Their arrival has stirred up the usual discussions about which refugees should be allowed into our country in general, and the plight of Gazans in particular. The biggest discussions around it, though, quickly moved towards blaming Israel for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, apparently one shipment of 100 paying refugees at a time.
It is ridiculous, but it is also not surprising considering just who is at the core of these accusations; who is using a plane full of desperate refugees to stir up blind hatred for Israel. And one has to wonder just how much of a coincidence it was that this was all happening in the midst of the G20 summit and at the exact same time that Hamas had openly declared their refusal to adhere to the terms of the next part of the peace plan that would see them disarm and/or leave Gaza for good.
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There is obviously a lot to unpack here, and quite a few basic facts that need to be cleared up.
What We (May) Know
First, it is worth noting that this is actually the second privately chartered flight carrying more than 150 Gazans to arrive in our country over the past month. There was another plane that arrived on 28 October 2025 to no fanfare and no media attention. One hundred and seventy-six Palestinians were on board, all of whom were allowed entry into South Africa – though some apparently moved on elsewhere.
This second flight, however, was another matter entirely. Its arrival almost immediately sparked backlash from large parts of the South African public that has grown increasingly weary of refugees, let alone refugees from Gaza. When news emerged that these refugees were not allowed off the plane because Israel had apparently not stamped their passports, the conversation shifted to the usual blame game. Especially when the ANC government insisted it had no idea that an aeroplane full of Palestinian refugees was arriving in the country – again, this despite the completely uneventful landing of an identical flight just a few weeks ago.
There have been reports of both chartered planes being organised by a shady NGO operating out of Jerusalem called Al-Majd (whose website states its mission as “providing aid and rescue efforts to Muslim communities in conflict and war zones”), which charged each Palestinian on board $2,000 to get them out of the country. These passengers were then flown out of Israel’s Ramon Airport, first to Nairobi and then to South Africa. Apparently some knew their final destination would be South Africa; some thought they were going to places like India and Indonesia.
These particular reports all seem to be true, if not necessarily complete. What is rather more doubtful, however, is President Ramaphosa’s claim that the South African government had no knowledge of the flight.
Israeli officials have rejected this claim entirely, saying that COGAT – the department in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories – would only allow Gazan civilians to leave with the explicit approval of the destination country. These officials insist that not only were these Gazans approved to travel to South Africa by the South African government, they – or at least Al-Majd – were explicitly invited to come. Further, the idea that they were detained because they did not have exit stamps is completely spurious considering that Israel stopped physically stamping passports in 2013.
It is a total mess, clearly, and the truth of what happened is caught in a game of “he said/she said” between South Africa and Israel. But it has once again proven to be a Rorschach test; one whose shape is entirely determined by where one’s general allegiances lie: with Israel or against it.
And it is a Rorschach test being administered by none other than Imtiaz Sooliman of Gift of the Givers. Because even as he has offered platitudes about caring for these refugees, his underlying message comes down to blaming Israel, once again, for ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza – and then saying that South Africa should no longer accept such refugees, and should not have done so in the past.
What It Is All About
Whatever one might say about Sooliman, no one can deny his obvious smarts, and he has played this brilliantly.
One might think that the controversy surrounding all of this would be about whether South Africa should be admitting refugees from Gaza. It is, after all, a fair question. From a humanitarian point of view, the answer would seem to be obvious – yes, of course – but as has been proven in Western countries across the globe, humanitarian considerations need to be weighed against whether refugees from countries that do not share our liberal-democratic values will be able to integrate into our society, and whether our country can actually afford them. There is also the sadly unavoidable fear that terrorists may have infiltrated the group.
These are big, controversial questions, usually met with knee-jerk reactions of xenophobia and Islamophobia on one hand, and naivety and “suicidal empathy” on the other – both drowning out more balanced points of view. And, indeed, at first this did play out as expected, at least on social media. With South Africa’s complicated relationship with refugees and migrants, it is no surprise that the loudest and most heated reactions tended to reject even more refugees from even further afield.
But these are not just any refugees from any war-torn country. These are Palestinians from Gaza. And Sooliman very quickly set to manipulating the situation to suit his ends.
Manipulations and Exploitations
I have written extensively in the past about Sooliman and Gift of the Givers’ ties to Islamist organisations, including those involved with funding terror, and about Sooliman’s infiltration of the media, the police and the political echelons of this country. But one need not dig below the surface here. He has never hidden his anti-Israel views or his part in the ICJ case against the Jewish state. Indeed, Sooliman has always worn his attempts to delegitimise and demonise the world’s only Jewish state as a badge of pride.
And you can see his manipulative touch all over the way the public is perceiving this “mystery plane” of Gazan refugees. It is shameful and it fits right in with the way so-called “pro-Palestinian” activists use actual Palestinian civilians as pawns in their ideological – or literal – war with the State of Israel.
Because even with all the disinformation and conflicting claims out there, the plight of these refugees is straightforward.
Yes, it is true, many details are unclear. These refugees may or may not have been taken advantage of by a fake NGO in Jerusalem hoping to make money off their desperation. They may or may not have left with the full participation of the Israeli government. They may or may not have left with the knowledge of the South African government. They may have been vetted by Israeli and/or South African security establishments, or they may not have been. Considering that they arrived just before the G20 summit, the whole thing may even be the work of some other, even shadier organisation hoping to use them as a publicity stunt.
But one thing is crystal clear: these are people who paid a significant sum of money for the hope of creating a better life for themselves and their children away from the decimated Gaza Strip. If we can be sure of anything, it is that.
Hypocrisies and Lies
This is why it is so cynical, so utterly despicable, to see Sooliman – and Ramaphosa – viewing them as little more than another way to hit out at Israel. Especially when their logic is this flimsy. Because let us get this straight: what these “great defenders of Palestinian lives” have said, quite explicitly, is that South Africa should not have accepted – and should not in the future accept – any such flights of Gazan refugees. That doing so would be to aid Israel’s covert plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian civilians.
Just think about that for a moment.
Not only is it more than a little ridiculous to assume that Israel is trying to ethnically cleanse Gaza by shipping Palestinians out 100 to 200 at a time – which would take decades – it completely ignores that these Gazans have explicitly shown that they wanted to leave and paid a not-insubstantial sum to do so. Once again, this proves just how little those who profess to be pro-Palestinian actually care about what Palestinians themselves want. They deny these actual Palestinian refugees the dignity of choosing their own future, instead forcing them into a twisted, fundamentally disempowering narrative of Palestinians being nothing but hapless victims of the “Evil Zionist Regime”.
More than that, as part of the peace plan put forward by Donald Trump, which Israel willingly signed onto, it was made entirely clear what the situation is regarding the emigration of Palestinians from Gaza: they may not under any circumstances be forced out, but – and this is crucial – if they wish to leave of their own volition, they may do so, and will be allowed back if they choose.
This is not a conspiracy, but simply Israel allowing Gazan civilians the chance to exercise a right that all refugees from war-affected countries may exercise – something Gazans have so far been denied, not by Israel but by other countries: the right to leave a devastating war zone and build a new life elsewhere.
That these people – these Ramaphosas, these Soolimans – have the audacity to speak about how much they care about Palestinian civilians, while doing everything they can to prevent these Palestinians from helping themselves, is beyond hypocritical, beyond self-serving. And we, the South African public, dare not fall for it.
